


Who Are You?

by SorakuFett



Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider Build
Genre: Awkwardness, Dopants, Doppelganger, Fights, Foundation X, Gen, Implied Banjou Ryuuga/Kiryuu Sento, Monsters, One Shot, Post-Canon, Pre-Kamen Rider Zi-O, Soul-Searching, Spoilers, Tags Contain Spoilers, finding your purpose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-07-29 19:39:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16270982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SorakuFett/pseuds/SorakuFett
Summary: As it turns out, this new world Sento and Banjou ended up in still had threats that it faced. But with the help of the other Kamen Riders, the two warriors of love and peace found their way to help.On one such occasion of heroics, however, Banjou is forced to save a pair of civilians that he had been hoping to avoid meeting.





	Who Are You?

**Author's Note:**

> Old World Banjou/Cross-Z is referred to as Banjou or Cross-Z  
> New World Banjou is referred to as Ryuga.

Adjusting to life in this new world had been a bit bumpy for Sento Kiryu and Ryuga Banjou.

For starters, they didn't have any legally accepted money when they arrived, forcing them to quickly find jobs. Then came the constant cases of mistaken identity. Banjou envied Sento sometimes. At least he could simply say his real name and claim to be a lookalike for Taro Satou. Ryuga Banjou exists in this world. He may have had black hair, a still-successful MMA career and, chiefly, his fiance, Kasumi Ogura, and a lack of alien DNA, but he was still the real Ryuga Banjou as far as the world knew. Banjou, on the other hand, had only the clothes on his back and Sento by his side.

It still felt odd in light of everything they had been through, but they had to thank Soichi and Misora for allowing them to stay in the basement of nascita. It had been frankly a little trying to divorce his memories of Evolt from the current reality of the perfectly normal Soichi Isurugi, especially since the genocidal alien had apparently given such a perfect impression of the man... Him offering them work at the cafe was also a small Godsend.

Seeing Kazumi and Gentoku and even Utsumi walking around, oblivious to their history, was disconcerting. He asked Sento how he handled it all sometimes, to which the self-proclaimed Genius Physicist only replied, "This is the price we've paid for the love and peace we sought." He had a way of making it all sound so noble, but the truth was, late at night, he would awake to see Sento missing from the bed. He usually found him looking longingly at the Fullbottles. He missed their friends just as much, perhaps more, than Banjou did.

But of course, despite the end of Evolt and the non-existence of Faust and the Smash, this new world still had its fair share of villains. SHOCKER, Foundation X, Orphnochs, Dopants, Bugsters and all sorts of other threats show up all over the world. Seeing the other Riders again after meeting them during the incident with Kaisei Mogami was relieving, however, as it suddenly gave the two displaced heroes a purpose. If this world needed more Riders, it would have Build and Cross-Z.

 

Banjou was strolling around the city one lazy Sunday afternoon. All this new information about the Riders and their enemies was overwhelming. Leaning on a railing, he looked out at the blue sky above the city, no sign of the Skywall he knew for 10 long years of his life. All the people in this city never knew the terror of Evolt, the horrors of the Touto-Hokuto-Seito War... it made him think... So much so that his head hurt.

"Gaaagh! I just don't get it!" he loudly whined.

Sento would be laughing if he was there right now, but he was busy back at nascita. He pulled the Silver Dragon Fullbottle out of his pocket, looking at it. The last essence of  _his_ Kasumi Ogura. The basis for his transformation and the key to the alien power flowing through his veins.

"What do you think I should do, Kasumi?" he asked the bottle, some part of him honestly expecting an answer. 

Of course, he wasn't given any time to actually wait for an answer. Screaming suddenly broke out in the distance. Banjou turned his head sharply in its direction. 

"I guess that's one answer..." he said, putting the Silver Dragon bottle back into his pocket. Running off to the source of the screaming, Banjou found several menacing men in white suits terrorizing people. Their leader seemed to be a man in a similar suit, however the sleeves appeared to be burned off, as well as a few burn marks on his arms. He had a strange marking on his arm, near the inside of his elbow. Nearby objects were on fire, and Banjou figured the man with the burns was responsible.

"An excellent test of the improved Memory... And we've had a bit of fun along the way..." he spoke. He then gestured toward his men. The white suited minions gathered a few civilians together, forcing them back onto a bench. The leader held what appeared to be some sort of red-orange USB stick. He depressed a button on the top side of it.

_**MAGMA**  _

The USB stick spoke loudly with a deep voice. Taking the stick into his left hand, he appeared to inject himself with the device, placing the port against the marking on his arm. Suddenly the stick was absorbed into his body, and from the injection site, his body began to morph. His skin turned into molten rock, his body bulking up in size and his eyes glowed orange like lava. Fire began to radiate heavily off of and engulf him until the only visible parts of his "skin" were part of his face, his chest, arms and legs.

Banjou rushed headlong into the fray, punching out some of the monster's subordinates as he ran to stand between the monster and the crowd.

"That's far enough, freak!" he shouted. He looked back to the civilians, about to say something to reassure them, but noticed two faces in the crowd. The New World Ryuga Banjou and his fiance, Kasumi. 

 _Damn... of all the times to run into them..._ he thought to himself. Fortunately, they seemed to be too stricken with fear of the monster to recognize him. 

 **"Oh?"** the monster said to Banjou.  **"What's this? Someone wants to play the hero? Fine then, you can burn with the rest of them!"**

He threw a stream of fire at Banjou, but it was blocked with the indestructible Golden Dragon Evolbottle Banjou withdrew from his pocket. The crowd noticed the shiny object in their savior's hand. With his other hand, Banjou reached into his jacket and retrieved his Build Driver, placing the black object against his waist. Suddenly the bright yellow belt strap extended and clicked into place on the other side, prompting the electronic sound of the Driver's activation.

From somewhere else, Banjou's faithful companion, the red and navy Great Cross-Z Dragon flew in, screeching it's electronic beat-laden roar. Settling above Banjou, it lifted its neck and tail to fit parallel with its blocky body, falling into Banjou's free hand. 

**"I see... you're one of those new Kamen Riders... Well, you'll still die the same!"**

"Oh, that's where you're wrong," Banjou replied. He twisted the cap on the golden bottle, inserting it into the Great Cross-Z Dragon, prompting the device to speak.

_**AWAKEN!** _

He slammed the device into the Driver on his waist with a loud electronic sound, followed by another loud voice.

_**GREAT CROOOOSS-Z DRAGON!!!** _

The mechanical standby of the Build Driver played, accompanied by the electronic beats and compressed roaring of the Great Cross-Z Dragon. Banjou reached down to the bright red crank on the side of the Driver, gripping it tightly and turning it.

The steady, almost musical clanging and machine noises of the rotation, still accompanied by faster electronic sounds and roaring, had everyone held in suspense. Suddenly, from the Great Cross-Z Dragon, three pipes burst forth, filling with navy-colored gas, solidifying to form the two dragon-themed halves of the Great Cross-Z suit, as well as its armor pieces. The crowd and the villains all backed up away from it. Banjou let go of the crank, prompting an alarm and a rapidly declining electronic sound. The belt spoke once more, with a different voice than before.

_**ARE YOU READY?!** _

Punching his open palm, Banjou readied into a fighting stance, answering the belt's question.

**"TRANSFORM!"**

Standing up straight, he threw his arms to his sides, letting the armor pieces slide into place, encasing him in the suit. As they did so, the Great Cross-Z loudly played triumphant-sounding electro-pop, accompanied by the first voice, screaming out.

 **WAKE UP CROSS-Z!**  
GET GREAT DRAGON!  
YEAAAAAH!!!

The navy blue and black suit enclosed around his body, a bright gold emblem resembling both a dragon and a gear situated on his chest. Along his left arm and right leg, extra golden firey paint sat on his thigh and forearm. Along both forearms, bright white spikes protruded, with similar spikes in gold protruding from the shoulders. Sitting on his chest and shoulder sat an ornate armor piece, with designs resembling star charts laden in nacy, gold and crimson. His helmet had a small gold mouthpiece, two bright blue dragon shaped eyes and a deep navy dragon with crimson eyes separating the eyes, with a large red stripe going up past that. 

"Right now," Banjou spoke. "I feel like I can't lose! Not to you, or anyone in this world!" He pumped his right fist in front of him, clasping his forearm with his left hand. The black-haired Ryuga heard the familiar catchphrase and saw the familiar stance. But he dismissed them as coincidence. With a power like that, anyone would feel like they couldn't lose.

 **"Hmm..."** the monster said, studying Great Cross-Z's form.  **"Quite an interesting design. There's something heroic yet... almost evil about it..."**

"Shaddup!" Banjou shouted charging at the monster with a punch. The monster looked to his subordinates. 

 **"Well? What are you all standing around for?"** With that, the minions all drew similar USB sticks, black in color with skeletal designs. All at once, they depressed the buttons on the face, all the sticks proclaiming the same word in unison.

_**MASQUERADE** _

The minions injected the USB sticks directly into their necks, however only their heads seemed to visibly tranform, taking the appearance of black masks with white bones traveling down the length of the head. The minions all readied themselves in combat stances.

Cross-Z chuckled, extending his hand forward. Suddenly a new pipe fired out from the belt, the shape resembling a sword. Suddenly the shape solidified indeed into a sword, with a white blade, a spiked crossguard and hooked pommel, and what appeared to be some kind of meter along the flat sides of the blade, starting green at the base and ending in red near the notched tip, as well as a hole in the middle of the crossguard. The second voice of the belt now emmanated from the sword, proclaiming the sword's name.

_**BEAT CLOSER!** _

Cross-Z gripped the sword tightly in his hands, charging in to fight the masked minions and the burning monster. He practically danced around their punches and attacks, slashing them down easily. Three of them drew close together, preparing to attack, when Cross-Z pulled on the pommel of the Beat Closer. An electronic sound accompanied a small rise in the meter on the sword, as well as the voice proclaiming...

_**HIT PARADE!** _

Low-key techno music interspersed with dragon roars began playing from the sword. Pulling a small trigger on the sword, energy began to swirl around the sword's blade.

_**SMASH HIT!** _

Audio mixer sounds accompanied a release of energy firing at the three enemies, taking them all down at once.

"Anyone else wanna try me?" The blue savior called out.

 **"MOVE! He's mine!** **"** the magma monster shouted to his subordinates, shoving a couple out of his way.

The molten foe stepped forward to throw a punch, but Cross-Z swiftly dodged it.

"Come on, punches like that can't even knock over a featherweight!" Cross-Z taunted, delivering a swift slice to the monster's abdomen, staggering him backward. He drew the Silver Dragon bottle, giving it a good shake before inserting it into the hole in the center of the crossguard.

_**SPECIAL TUNE!** _

He pulled twice on the pommel.

**_HIT PA-HIT PARADE!_ **

Loud, vibrant techno music interspersed with draconic roars emanated from the weapon, before its wielder pulled the small trigger again, charging forward as energy resembling silver flames surrounded the sword.

**_MILLION SLASH!_ **

Record scratching and energy-building sounds pierced the air as the silver flames were cast forth at the magma creature, enveloping it before the sword struck him with enough force to send him flying backwards into some of his white-suited compatriots. The monster stood up, shaking his head to get his bearing when he saw Cross-Z remove the silver bottle from his blade and stab the sword into the ground beside him.

"It's time I put this fire out!" Cross-Z shouted as he reached down to the crank on his belt, turning it again. The whole crowd of civilians stared, the light of hope returned to their faces, as their savior's left fist was enveloped in golden flame. He released the crank as the belt's voice let out a call.

_**READY? GO!!** _

A translucent golden dragon flew in, swirling itself around Cross-Z before lining up over his left fist. He took a fighting stance, right foot and hand forward, left hand down and left foot back. A stance that two faces in the crowd recognized. 

The black-haired Ryuga Banjou wondered to himself. 

_Is that... one of my moves?_

His thoughts were interrupted by the Great Cross-Z Dragon's loud finishing war cry.

_**GREAT DRACONIC FINIIIIIIISH!!!** _

With his right hand, Cross-Z beckoned the burning foe. As expected, the monster took up the challenge, charging forward while yelling. His screams were met with the seasoned Rider pivoting his torso and arms, delivering a painful straight left punch, enveloped in the maw of a dragon. The dragon roared as gloved fist impacted molten chest. As the monster flew backwards, the USB memory suddenly ejected from his arm, his body turning back to human. In midair, the USB crackled with electricity and burst open, shattering into pieces.

The crowd of civilians cheered as the monster was defeated. The man in white scrambled over to the shattered remains of his USB memory, finding one intact piece before it was stepped on by a navy boot. He looked up to meet the masked face of his new enemy.

"Boo." Cross-Z whisper-shouted.

The man in burnt white clothes screamed, running away as his subordinates followed, despite still being transformed into the masked monsters. The crowd of civilians continued applauding and cheering their new hero. Thanks and blessings were given, making Banjou thankful no one could see him blushing and smiling under his helmet. He thought back fondly to those words Sento spoke, from so long ago now.

_"When I help someone out, I become so happy that I grin from ear to ear... You just can't see it under the mask."_

_Damnit, Sento... all that chivalry's rubbing off on me..._

He turned to walk away before one voice made him stop.

"Wait!" Kasumi Ogura pleaded.

Her voice still had effects on him. He and Sento both knew it. In fact, Sento encouraged him not to try and let her go. But every time he saw her face or heard her voice, the pain so intimately connected to the thought of her came back. His life that wasn't to be. How she died in his arms, apologizing for thinking she dragged him into something that had truly been following him since the day he was born. Once again, he thanked the mask, now for hiding his sorrow. Her fiancé, the black haired Ryuga Banjou stepped forward as well. If the two of them were anything alike, Banjou could rest easy knowing  _Ryuga's_ life with Kasumi would not take such a dark turn.

"Who... Who are you?" Kasumi asked.

The question threw him. It was a cliche he should have expected, but somehow it never occurred to him. Maybe because he was planning to avoid this encounter. Maybe because he didn't have an answer himself.

Until now.

"... Cross-Z."

He spoke quietly, but sure of himself. He turned around to face them. Her eyes looked the same as he remembered them.  

"Call me... Kamen Rider Cross-Z."

He spoke the words true. In this world, he had a purpose. That purpose was to make sure no one would ever have to suffer the same fate his Kasumi did. That purpose made him who he was. It made him a Kamen Rider.

Kasumi smiled at him, nodding.

"Well... Thank you for saving us... Kamen Rider Cross-Z." She and Ryuga bowed politely.

"Hey, just don't go getting caught up in any more bad guy plans. That's thanks enough for me!" Banjou replied. "And you, sir..." he spoke, turning to Ryuga. "I'm looking forward to your big fight next week!"

"O-oh! Really? Alright!" The black-haired boxer stammered, amazed that his savior recognized him, seemingly confirming his suspicions. "I'll be sure to give it as much as you gave here!"

After seeing the crowd off to the safety of the city police, Banjou retrieved the sword he nearly forgot sitting in the ground, before removing the Great Cross-Z Dragon from his belt, the sword and armor dissolving off of him. Letting the mechanical familiar fly off, he sat down in the slightly singed bench in front of him, contemplating his sudden revelation.

 _As long as I can make sure those two can keep smiling..._  he thought to himself,  _I think I'll be alright here._

Suddenly he got a phone call from Sento. He answered it.

"Hey, what's up? ... Huh? What weird watch? Oh, you don't really expect me to remember every bit of technobabble you talk at me, do you?"

He held the phone away from his ear as the "charming" physicist screamed bloody murder at him.

"Hey, hey, hey! Look, it was just a little jab! Any way, what happened to this weird watch of yours? ...Huh?"

The last sentence perplexed him.

"What do you mean it's gone blank?"


End file.
